Country diary: a baby wood pigeon peers out through the roof scaffolding

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: Tucked under the guttering, the fluffy squab is sitting in a little raft of sticks with an unhatched egg on the boards "There!" he points, but I can't see for looking. At the top of the scaffold, with a bird's eye view of roofs, chimneys and treetops, my senses are still adjusting when I see what brought me here.Tucked out of sight under the guttering is a grey ball of fluff peering back at me. It's a squab, a wood pigeon chick, sitting in a little raft of sticks with an unhatched egg on the boards. The scaffolder shakes his head, there is no way his gaffer is going to allow the scaffold to stay here another couple of weeks while the squab fledges - it has to be taken down now. "Bloody pigeons, eh?" Continue reading...